Songoftheday 1/20/18 - To the people at home or in the crowd it keeps coming up anyhow, don't decoy avoid or make void the topic cause that ain't gonna stop it...
from the album Black's Magic (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Today's song of the day comes from the rap group Salt-N-Pepa, who had already landed two top-40 pop hits from their third album Black's Magic, "Expression" and "Do You Really Want Me". The fourth single from the record would end up being its most successful. Written and produced by Hurby Azor, "Let's Talk About Sex" is a fun but frank discussion about sex and the protections needed in the age of AIDS. It also addressed the cultural divide that had people like Tipper Gore railing against profanity in music, and how hypocritical and dangerous that could be. All of this was over a sample of "I'll Take You There" from the Staple Singers...
"Let's Talk About Sex" became the third top-40 pop hit from Blacks' Magic in November of 1991. Surprisingly, the single only made it to #51 on Billboard's R&B chart. The dance remixes on the 12" vinyl/cassette single helped the track rise to #6 on their Dance Club Play chart, their best showing. Internationally, the record was a huge success, with it topping the singles charts in Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria. Additionally, "Let's Talk About Sex" reached the top ten in the UK (#2), Sweden (#2), Norway (#3), New Zealand (#3), Ireland (#4), and Finland (#8). In 1992, Salt-N-Pepa were nominated for a Grammy Award for the song for Best Rap Group/Duo Performance, losing to DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince's "Summertime".
A fifth single from the Blacks' Magic album, a reworking of the Turtles' "You Showed Me", climbed to #47 on the pop chart, but all the way up at #15 in the UK.
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Here's the alternate mix of the song done by Tony Monte, which went to the top ten on the dance chart...
The women also did a version specifically about AIDS, called "Let's Talk About AIDS" which was a bold and needed public service announcement about the disease...
In 2016, L.A. DJs Cheat Codes and Dutch DJs Kris Kross Amsterdam had a huge international hit single with "Sex", which interpolated the chorus of the Salt-N-Pepa track. It "bubbles under" the American pop chart, but reached the top ten all over the world, and #9 in the UK...
and finally, here's the trio on the Arsenio Hall show, an awesome performance...
Up tomorrow: New York rocker talks about auto accessories.
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